Floodwaters, particularly from swollen rivers and high tides can cause widespread and costly damage. The damage caused is not only to crops, roadways and other externally located constructions which become at least partially submerged, but also to the interiors of properties such as warehouses or domestic dwellings. The apparent increase in the frequency of floodwater causing such damage has highlighted the costs involved in reparation and that these costs are borne principally by insurance companies or property owners.
The problem of the flooding of domestic dwellings has recently increased, due to changes in government policy regarding where new housing may be located. Previously, it has been the case that due to the number of houses which needed to be built, and the amount of land available, locations for new houses could be chosen which did not lie in areas known to be prone to flooding, such as areas of a river's flood plain. However, due to the increased drive towards the construction of new homes and the lack of suitable space now available, the criteria for assessing whether land is fit for the purposes, of construction have been relaxed and an increasing number of buildings are now at risk.
Furthermore, the increased coverage of formerly agricultural or open land with concrete has the result that less rainwater is absorbed by the ground. Instead, the water flows rapidly over the concrete into the sewerage system and then into already swollen streams and rivers. The streams and rivers therefore reach a higher water level, more rapidly than was previously the case, placing buildings, which were formerly safe from flooding, at risk.
A number of methods are known, which reduce or prevent from flood water from entering into a dwelling. The most common of these methods is to stack sand bags against the particular entry point which is at risk. This can however be a difficult and arduous task and is not at all suitable for those who are infirm or who have difficulty in lifting and maneuvering the sand bags into position. Furthermore, even where a sand bag barrier has been constructed, it is normally not water-tight, but allows water to seep either through the main body of the sand bag, or between neighbouring sand bags. Moreover, once the flood water has passed, the user is then left with the problem where to store the sand bags and also with the problem of how to prevent the material from which the bag itself is formed from rotting. The latter problem is particularly acute where sacking is used to form a bag.
An alternative solution is to provide a housing around a portion of the periphery of an aperture. Housing known in the art often has a U-shaped channel into which panels are slotted, panels co-operating to form a barrier. Sealing material, often formed of strips of rubber is provided on either or both of the panel or the channel so that a water-tight seal is produced. The rubber strips need therefore to engage closely with another part of the barrier in order to produce a good seal. Due to the close engagement of the act of pushing a barrier into a U-shaped channel can be difficult and also cause damage to the sealing material due to friction.
It is an object of the present invention to seek to alleviate the above disadvantages and to provide an apparatus which provides a removable barrier to prevent flood water entering a building.
It is a further object of the invention to reduce the need to employ sand bags or the number of sand bags required to prevent water from entering through an aperture of a building.